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1968 (poem)

By Larry Kerschner

I lost 1968

somewhere in the hot and moist jungles

of the central highlands of Vietnam

when I wasn't paying attention

J. Edgar came out of his closet

long enough to murder and jail

young black leaders

who caused his scrotum to shrivel

afraid that someone might know that he was

passing as white himself

his FBI assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr.

so that a black messiah would not lead to the mountain top

the CIA killed Robert Kennedy on television

LBJ allowed Nixon to commit treason

for the good of the people

Armstrong spent several hours walking on the moon

a first step toward going

where no man had gone before

I heard that the Civil Rights Act was signed

ending the civil war and jim crow slavery

people of color would have control of their lives

able to be free and equal citizens of these united states

when I returned to the world in 1969

it was a whole different thing

—Larry Kerschner